Mozilla launches Firefox 29

Mozilla launches Firefox 29

Yesterday, Mozilla launched Firefox 29 in a bid to compete with the 5 year market dominance of Google Chrome.

One of the most obvious contributing factors to the Firefox decline was the overwhelmingly dusty appearance of Firefox’s default interface. On both Windows and OS X, Mozilla’s browser looked dated. With this in mind, the Firefox 29 redesign is not revolutionary, but it puts Firefox on par with Chrome, Opera, and the latest IE release. Mozilla has finally learned that a few clunky buttons can ruin an entire browsing experience, because the browser’s job is to simply present the Web and get out of the way. Subtle details like the new bookmark animation (below) add a nice touch.

Along with the redesign, Mozilla further elevates the status of Firefox Sync, a rival to Chrome’s syncing feature. The feature is now more easily accessible in Firefox’s new drop-down menu. Mozilla also revamped Firefox’s customization features. Finally, Firefox 29 includes new developer tools, although none of them appear to be groundbreaking.

In summary, Mozilla appears to be offering just a few new features in a far prettier package. For the design-obsessed, there’s now one less reason to avoid Firefox.